Searching for Grace

An American family handicapped by snobbery and secrets provides the framework for a larger view of such world problems as poverty and civil war in this engaging if sometimes soap opera-ish first novel. Elizabeth Bennett, a 70-year-old homemaker, has meticulously choreographed her life around the needs of her husband, retired surgeon Walter, and their four grown children, Luce, Rand, Avery and Mead. From the cozy confines of her Manhattan co-op, Elizabeth conducts an elaborate e-mail correspondence with her youngest daughter, 35-year-old Mead, who is conducting AIDS field research in Kenya. Mead is her parents' favorite, the only child to follow in her father's footsteps via a fast-track career studying infectious diseases. Luce, who is a decade older and lives in San Francisco, long ago fell out of favor with her science-driven family when she ditched the scalpel for a paint brush. Her most successful series of paintings, Searching for Grace, lends the novel its title; it was inspired by the loss of her late partner to cancer. These three very different women share one commonality: they have shaped their lives according to love and loss. But the Bennetts' long-standing failure to see each other as emotional human beings prevents them from being a cohesive family, even when tragedy forces full disclosure of everybody's true feelings. Kear vividly depicts the prosperity of San Francisco and New York City, and in stark contrast, the harsh poverty and horizontal landscapes of Africa. Though Bennett brothers Rand and Avery are superfluous characters, and the book's brevity forces Kear to tidily sum up at the end the characters' life changes, this promising novel does strive admirably for grace through far-reaching themes of remorse and redemption. (Oct.)